An overhead crane hangs from your building; a gantry crane carries its own runway on the ground. That single difference decides the civil work, the cost and whether the crane can exist at all on your site.
The difference in one paragraph
An overhead crane travels on runway beams fixed to the columns of a building, so the building carries the crane and the load. A gantry crane travels on rails laid on the ground, with its own legs, so the ground carries everything and the crane is independent of the buildings around it. Every other difference — cost split, foundation work, weather protection, span limits — follows from that.
When the building decides for you
If the crane is going inside an existing building, the first question is not which crane you want but whether the columns and runway can take the wheel loads. That is true for both types, but for a gantry crane inside a building you are also paying for legs and rails you may not need.
- Building with strong columns and a normal roof — overhead crane, almost always. It is cheaper, does not block the floor, and the runway is already there.
- Building with weak or light columns — either strengthen the runway for an overhead crane, or use a gantry crane and skip the building entirely.
- No building at all — gantry crane. It is the only practical way to get powered lifting over open ground.
- Yard that may be reorganised later — gantry on rails at least lets you move stock and change layout; a tyre-mounted gantry can lift anywhere on the slab.
The civil work is usually the deciding cost
On a gantry project, a significant part of the total — sometimes comparable to the crane itself — is the rail foundation, drainage and ground bearing capacity. That work is done by your contractor, not supplied by us, and it is the most common surprise in a gantry budget.
On an overhead crane project the equivalent work is the runway beams and, if the columns are insufficient, strengthening them. Ask for the wheel loads and the rail section early, in both cases: it is far cheaper to design the foundation around the crane than to squeeze a crane onto whatever foundation already exists. Our gantry crane page and single girder page both list what we send with the offer.
Outdoors: what changes
A crane in the open air needs a different specification from one indoors, and this is where cheap offers quietly leave things out:
- Wind — the crane must be anchored when parked; exposed sites need rail clamps and, often, an anemometer with automatic stop.
- Corrosion — galvanizing or a multi-coat system with a stated dry film thickness, and stainless fasteners on coastal sites (which is most of Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines).
- Water and dust — IP55 motors and panels, sealed bearings, drainage in the girder, a rain cover over the hoist.
- Power feed — cable reel, festoon or conductor busbar along the rail; busbar is usually cheaper to run and easier to maintain over long tracks.
The cases where the answer is obvious
Choose a gantry crane if the lifting happens outdoors, if there is no suitable building, if the area is a storage yard that may change, or if the span is wide and the existing roof is low. Choose an overhead crane if the crane works inside a building with usable columns, if floor space matters, if the span is under about 30 m, or if you need two hooks and precise positioning in a production bay.
Many sites end up with both: an overhead crane inside the workshop, and a gantry crane over the storage yard alongside it. If you send a plan of the site — rails, stacking areas, building outline and where material arrives — we will tell you which one we would quote, and why. Send your site details.
Questions about your own project? Send the capacity, span, lifting height and duty and we will tell you honestly what we would specify — send an inquiry or message us on Zalo.